The period in which to assess the suitability of a new hire for continued employment is about to become much shorter.

Ordinary unfair dismissal protection will become a right from 1 January 2027 for those with six months’ service (reduced from the current requirement for two years’ service). This means those newly employed from 1 July 2026 will have enough service to bring a claim by the time the law changes.

Therefore, we advise:

  • Defaulting the probationary period length to three months for new employees. This still allows sufficient time to monitor progress and determine whether the employee is suitable for the position and also to extend it, if necessary, by a month or two.
  • Any probation extensions should normally conclude no later than five months’ service.
  • By this point, you should communicate a final suitability decision to the employee and give the necessary notice provided in their contract* to terminate employment if the probationary period is not successful. This should ensure that the notice period ends before the six‑month threshold.

*Please note:

  • If the contractual notice is less than the statutory minimum notice, then the statutory minimum notice (of one week for one month or more of employment) is read into the contract. This is because the notice cannot be less than the statutory minimum.
  • If your contractual notice is more than the statutory notice period, then you would need to adjust any probation extension period accordingly to ensure that the end of the notice period doesn’t tip over the six-month (26-week) threshold.
  • On the other hand, if you terminate employment without notice when notice should have been given, even by making a payment in lieu of notice, the law then adds on the employee’s above statutory minimum notice period (one week) to their termination date. In that case, it would be vital to ensure the termination date is at least one day before the end of the 25th week of employment.

We have made the necessary contract of employment amendment for new contracts to reflect the above – download here.

What to do now

  • In the interest of efficiency, we kindly ask that you download the above document via the link. If the update hasn’t already been carried out to your contract of employment documents, please action this.
  • If you require our assistance in actioning this update and this is part of the service you receive, please attach your current contract of employment documents when contacting your advisers.
  • We also recommend downloading our Probation Period Overview Factsheet here. It explains how probationary periods should be managed, taking into account the shortened period from 1 July 2026 in which to assess new hires for continued employment.

Should you have any queries or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your Employment Law Advisers on 0345 226 8393.

In the meantime, for a detailed overview of all the developments scheduled to come into effect this year and beyond, we recommend downloading our Guide to the Employment Rights Act 2025 here.